She reached the cloud-hidden mountain around late morning on her third day of alternate gliding and flapping. Not for the first time she thought that this plateau was larger than it had always seemed. Then again, gliding was slow.

Cold air wafted down from the mountain, refreshing her somewhat and pushing clouds over the land.

Out of simple curiosity – and because the flight had been so utterly boring until now – she flapped her wings hard, flying up the side of the mountain and into the clouds. Tiny droplets of water quickly clung to her feathers, but didn’t impede her. Straining her wings, she broke out of the clouds and into glaring sunlight.

It was a whole new world. The white mountain peak looked silently down upon the world, the clouds hanging around it like a scarf. The snow glittered in the sunlight like jewels on a white gown.

Rethia sighed contentedly. What etheral beauty.

And then she looked down. Below her hovering form, the clouds had formed into a tiny maelstorm. Whooping, she dove into the clouds and surfaced a few meters away, trailing pieces of clouds behind her. Twirling around herself and drawing circles into the clouds with her wings. She had fun playing in this cold, still world above the clouds.

But she soon gasped for breath, unused to the thin air. Content, she let herself fall backwards into the clouds, listening to the air rushing past.

A thin dusting of misplaced clouds marked her exit point into warmer currents.

What a wonderful sight. I want to see it again. And the ocean. And the Lake of Silver. And, oh, so many many things! I can’t wait to see it all! And someplace will be my home. Maybe there is a flock near the volcanoes of the dragonewts? Or in a cliffside, trading with the merpeople? How exciting!

Flicking her tail, she rolled around to face the ground, snapping her wings open. She briefly skimmed over a forest below the plateau, before an updraft brought her back to a comfortable traveling altitude.

She was so busy dreaming about the wonderful sights she would see in her future, that she lost sight of her immediate surroundings.

A loud screech from right above her was all the warning she got.

Fright reflexes pulled her wings close, dropping her from the sky like a stone. And not too soon. A clacking noise and the whoosh of pushed air came from behind. Craning her neck backwards, she saw the sharp maw of a wyvern where she had been just now. Its shadow fell over her, as it folded its wings to dive after her.

Oh Sprites, no! What are they doing here?! Where did they hide! Go away! Please leave me alone!

The ground rushed towards her with equally frightening speed. Her eyes, squinted against the biting wind, searched for a place to hide. Only trees. She could see the shadow of the wyvern growing larger on the canpoy, swallowing her own.

I’ll crash! What to do? What to do! I don’t want to die! I’m just a tiny little harpy! Just a hatchling! Sprites, please help me! – Wait, tiny?

Her wings spread partially, giving her maneuverability without slowing her fall – nosedive – down too much. With a glance behind her, she angled a tiny bit to the left. Then her wings and tail opened fully, breaking her fall, before beginning to flap furiously, to stay out of the trees. Pain raced down her shoulders and back. The wyvern, much larger than her and too focused on catching her, crashed straight into the trees, ripping its leathery wings to shreads, as it attempted to save them from the trees.

An angry screech from above pulled her attention up. Two more wyverns circled above her, not yet daring to drop down to catch her.

Hovering just above the canopy, she grinned at them. And then her back end hurt like fire. With a frightened sqwack, she pushed away from the canopy and stared at the grounded wyvern snapping at her. Five of her tail feathers floated down.

“You dumb lizard! How dare you!” she screamed, turning around and winging it. Too bad that the other two wyverns followed her closely. She had to find a safe spot!

“Over here!”

Swerving left, towards the sudden voice, she saw fire flying right at her – no, past her. Going by the screeches and the crashing sound behind her, it had hit one of the wyverns. Another fire flew past her, but apparently it hadn’t hit anything.

Rethia turned in a tight circle and saw one wyvern quickly flying away, while the other was thrashing around in the forest. Hovering for a moment, she searched for whoever was responsible for the flying fire. They had saved her. She had to at least thank them, right?

She decided to cirlce over the second wyvern, a safe distance above the scene of battle. Five Landbound wore the wyvern down. One with a staff somewhat hidden in the forest, one with a shield-and-sword and one with a spear heckling the wyvern from right in front of it, drawing attention away from one with daggers climbing up the wyverns back to its very neck.

And from somewhere, arrows were being shot at the head of the wyvern, but she couldn’t see the person who did that.

The dagger-wielder climbed up the long neck, driving her blades deep into the wyverns eyes. It roared and shook itself, throwing the dagger-wielder into the air. Dagger screamed in panic, flailing around wildly.

Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

The other Landbound pulled away from the thrashing wyvern.

No! Without a thought, Rethia swooped down and grabbed one of Daggers arms with a talon – and immediately sagged down two wingspans, before she could compensate for the sudden weight. The woman was heavy!

Rethia tried to grab the other arm, too, but the woman was flailing around too much, making even flying more difficult.

“Hold still!” shouted Rethia, straining to keep above the canopy and away from the wyvern.

“Huuh? Waah!” whatever self-preserving instinct was left in Dagger, made her go rigid, letting Rethia take back control of her flight and thus escape an arrow from behind. She didn’t see it until it had already passed below her left wing. Turning, another one flew dangerously close past her face.

“Don’t shoot!” shouted someone down below. The staff-wielder waved frantically with his arms at someone. Probably towards the archer, which she still hadn’t seen. Scanning the forest, there were no more arrows flying towards her.

Better that way, now I can search for some place to set her down. Carrying her is exhausting! Are all Landbound so heavy? The trees are too close, I can’t land there. The only good place is near the wyvern. Drats. Oh, I looks like it is finally dead. Those daggers must’ve pierced all the way to its brain. But damn did it take long to finally die. Whatever.

With straining muscles and a wary gaze at both the wyvern and the visible Landbound, she slowly closed in on the ground, setting Dagger down with care – only for the woman to instantly collapse to her knees. Seriously, why? Had she hurt herself somehow with her wild flailing?

Landing right behind Dagger, she closed her wings, grabbing her shoulders with her claws to relax her muscles a little. And to cover up. Although covered with feathers, she suddenly felt very aware of how little she wore compared to the Landbound in front of her.

They stared at each other in silence, Dagger still slumped and unmoving, until the archer appeared out of the forest.

Rethia blinked at that. She hadn’t seen or heard the archer, until she was suddenly right next to the spearman and whispering something that sounded like “… pinged her. She … out because of her heart … never forgive me … briefed …”

She didn’t catch the whole thing, and what she heard didn’t make any sense. But the Landbound visibly relaxed, so whatever it was, it was probably a good message?

“Uhm… is… your friend feeling unwell? She hasn’t moved… and I didn’t mean to frighten her,” ventured Rethia, fluffing her feathers in distress.

The Landbound stared at her with shock and wide eyes. Which in turn made Rethia take a step back and fluff her feathers even more, making her look a little like a feathered ball.

“You can talk?” blurted Shield-Sword.

Rethia cocked her head at the silly question. “Of course. Did you have a problem learning it?” she asked back. Which made the others roar with laughter. Shield-Sword blushed and hid his face behind his shield.

What is so funny about this? she thought to herself. Landbound. They are so strange.

Movement right in front of her drew her eyes towards Dagger, the woman finally moving again. She turned her head around slowly, as if she had just woken up. Upon facing Rethia, the woman did something utterly strange: She issued a high-pitched scream and crawled away from Rethia as quickly as she could, running straight into the wyvern, where she did a little jump, scooted away from the dead body, whipped her head around several times and then crawled towards the other Landbound, hiding behind them.

The scene threw the Landbound into another round of laughter, this time joined by Shield-Sword. Spearman and Archer doubled over, gasping for air between bouts of laughter.

The staff-wielder was the first who got herself back under control, wiping tears from her eyes.

“I’m very sorry about my companions, Miss. We have been under duress for quite some time. The forests are not exactly safe around here, and we’ve been camping out for several days with little rest. May I ask what race you belong to? Do you live around here? We’ve never seen anyone like you.”

“I’m a harpy. I live.. ah… not around here.” It was a rule to not disclose the location of the village to just anyone. “I wanted to thank you for saving me from the wyverns.”

“Oh, think nothing of it. We were searching for a challenge and you just happened to bring the wyverns low enough that we could try our hand. If anything, we should be thanking you for bringing them into range. We’ve watched that trio for the last two days.”

“Thinking of, there were only two wyverns. Did you see the third one?” interrupted Archer, finally having recovered from whatever had been so funny.

“Yes, I have. It crashed into the forest as it chased after me. The trees shredded its wings, so it should still be there. It’s, uh…” Rethia turned her head around, seeing only trees. Which way had it been? Loosening her claws, she jumped high, going straight into a circling glide, scanning the canopy.

Over there is the plateau. Wow, I’ve flown quite the distance away from it, haven’t I? And somewhere on the way, the wyvern crashed… oh, right there. Landing, she pointed in the direction of the grounded wyvern. “It’s in that direction. What? Is something the matter?”

The Landbound were staring worse than before, a strange glint in their eyes. Was it longing? Envy? Admiration? She couldn’t tell.

“Wish I had started as a harpy…” muttered Staff.

“So you’re a harpy? Not a giant eagle?” asked Dagger, nudging Staff.

“Where do I look like a giant eagle?” asked Rethia back.

“Uh… You both have feathers and wings?”

Rethia shook her head over this nonsense. They might as well declare her a sparrow at this rate. But she shouldn’t expect too much from uneducated Landbound. In fact, she should leave. She had already wasted enough time on escaping the wyverns and talking to these Landbound.

“Well then, thank you for your help with the wyvern. I will be on my way then.” She nodded her head at them, crouching.

“Wait!” shouted Dagger. Rethia looked at her with questioning eyes. “Uh… uhm…”

Listening to the stutter for 30 heartbeats, Rethia decided that there was nothing more. With a jump, twirl and several wingbeats, she was airborne and many paces away from the Landbound, angling back towards her travel route.

Sometime during the whole encounter, the sun had crossed her zenith and was quickly closing in on the western horizon. Her wings were tired and she wanted nothing more than to sleep, but her close encounter with the wyverns made her search for a sheltered spot. Who knew what else was out there, seeing her as nothing but a delicious snack?

With this newfound experience, she no longer felt save taking the next best spot. Of course she had known about wyverns, but without actually encountering them, she hadn’t known how dangerous they were. How much larger they were, compared to a harpy. That thing could’ve swallowed her whole!

A cold shiver ran down her spine and she redoubled her efforts to find a sheltered niche in the cliffside of the plateau. Large enough for her, but small enough that none of the larger skyborne predators could fit in.

Her choice was an outcropping, just large enough to fit her. Huddling close to the cliff, she gnawed on a strip of dried jerky from her belt pouches. It wasn’t perfect, but most predators would stay away – if they noticed her at all. So close to the cliff, they had to take special care to not hit their wings.

It wasn’t even dark yet, but she fell asleep right after her meager meal. Too exhausted from the excitement and exertions of the day.